MinnPost’s fall effort to draw readers, like the season’s political campaigns, includes lawn signs, buttons, and bumper stickers. But its most notable feature is its identification with another news outlet.

“It was a surprise when we saw it,” says Bill Gray, communication director for Minnesota Public Radio, which had no part in the effort. “Our view is it’s free publicity for us.”

“From surveys we’ve done and anecdotally, we know that most of our readers do listen to MPR,” says Joel Kramer, cofounder, editor, and CEO of the MinnPost.com news site. The marketing campaign is “a way of recognizing something about our readers” and “getting more people like them” to read MinnPost.